To fill the spiritual and educational void of post-revolutionary France, Blessed Father Basil Moreau founded the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1837. Blessed Moreau called on the priests and brothers of Holy Cross to educate "both mind and heart," principally in schools, parishes and in mission territories.

We shall always place education side by side with instruction: the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven.

In 1841, Blessed Father Moreau sent Father Edward Sorin and six brothers to the United States. In 1842, they founded the University of Notre Dame du Lac, the first permanent foundation of the Congregation in the United States.

In 1946, the Congregation of Holy Cross accepted the invitation of Bishop William J. Hafey of Scranton to begin an independent four year college for men in Wilkes-Barre. Through its courses of study, sons of coal miners and men returning from the war were to be given a broad-based liberal education in the Catholic tradition that was to provide intellectual, moral and spiritual preparation to assist them in leading satisfying and purposeful lives. In the words of its founding President, Father James Connerton, CSC, "King’s teaches students not only how to make a living, but how to live." As years passed and the college flourished, the mission of the school continued to educate countless numbers of first generation college students.

Major changes have occurred since the founding of King’s College, including the admittance of women in 1970. With an ever-expanding campus, the college offers 35 academic majors, 19 NCAA Division III athletic programs and over 50 student clubs and activities.

As a Catholic college in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, King’s College welcomes students of all faiths into its community.